


til kingdom come

by misstaken



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Afterlife, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mild Smut, Self-Discovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-11-02 10:56:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10943061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misstaken/pseuds/misstaken
Summary: Wherever their journeys lead and no matter how long they lived, in the end, all Noctis and Ardyn desired was to find their way home.





	til kingdom come

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eowyn (eowynsmusings)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eowynsmusings/gifts).



> This started out as a shortfic twitter prompt of Ardynoct + "Fix You" by Coldplay; that's the song I kept in mind for Noctis, as I was writing and listening to "X + Y" on repeat, Ardyn's song became "Til Kingdom Come", and I think I almost like it better for this fic.
> 
> Giant spoilers for the ending. Consider this a warning if you haven't finished the game yet.

_High up above or down below_  
_When you're too in love to let it go_  
_If you never try you'll never know_  
_Just what you're worth_

Growing up, Noctis heard a variety of stories about what happened to a person after death. The stories ranged from nothingness to blissful paradise, but the one thing that everyone who believed in life after death assured him was that he would be reunited with his lost loved ones when he arrived. As a result of these tales, Noctis was vaguely surprised to find himself alone when he opened his eyes for the first time on a new plane of existence.

He wasn’t sure exactly what he had expected, but it definitely involved some sort of scenery. Certainly, he didn’t plan on being greeted by a welcome party or a judge and jury, but as he surveyed his surroundings, there was nothing but darkness as far as he could see, and he blinked a few times to make sure he was actually awake and not in a state of suspended animation.

“Nope, I’m here,” he said to himself, rubbing his hands over the hair standing up on his forearms. It wasn’t cold - in fact, he wasn’t positive there was temperature at all - but the darkness was unnerving enough that a chill ran through his body. “Wherever here is.”

Noctis pushed himself to a standing position; there wasn’t any tangible surface underneath his feet, but he was able to stand as if there was a floor. He squinted his eyes, trying to make out any signs of life as he turned in a slow circle. Finally, he sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. The suit he had been wearing during his battle with Ardyn was still intact; for a moment he thought to thank whoever had cleaned it, then remembered that his physical body didn’t exist any longer; this was a manifestation of his consciousness, and he was simply wearing the last outfit that his brain recalled. Bahamut had explained the concept to him during his years in the Crystal, but he was too singularly focused on locating Ardyn and finishing his mission to pay much mind to what might happen when he completed it.

He tried to call Umbra, as he had done so many times on Eos, but there was no response. “Sure would be nice if he’d show up,” Noctis thought aloud, “I thought that dog could go anywhere.”

Noctis checked over his shoulder again to see if Umbra had appeared, but when there was still no one and nothing around him, he took a deep breath and decided to start walking. The afterlife had to be at least as big as Eos, and even in the barren deserts of Leide, if Noctis walked far enough eventually he came across what he was looking for. He didn’t seem to need food or drink and the passage of time felt insignificant, so he continued to walk for what seemed like an eternity until he finally saw a speck in the darkness.

“Hey,” Noctis called, “Who’s there? Hello?”

The speck moved, and Noctis increased his pace from a casual stroll to a feverish jog, suddenly motivated to find whoever or whatever was in the distance. Even if it was just a speck of light and the lifelike movement was a figment of his imagination, he had to find out what awaited him.

He was grateful to discover that the speck in the darkness wasn’t his mind playing tricks on him or a random person from his past; it was Lunafreya’s loyal companion Pryna, who had passed away shortly before Lunafreya had lost her own life. Pryna saw Noctis and barked, and Noctis dropped to his knees, welcoming the dog into his arms. He remembered Pryna from his time in Tenebrae as a boy and the canine clearly remembered him, licking his face joyfully as he scratched behind her ears.

“Do you…” he said quietly to the dog, hope creeping into his voice, “know where Luna is? Is she with my father? My...mother, too?”

Pryna barked, and the next time Noctis opened his eyes he stood before the familiar facade of the Citadel, but instead of piles of rubble and fallen Imperial ships, the building was surrounded by a field of vibrant blue sylleblossoms. Noctis’s heart leapt into his throat at the thought of reuniting with his father and mother, Lunafreya, Nyx Ulric, and all the other people that had gone before him. Thoughts of Ardyn lurked in the back of his mind as well; he hoped that the other man hadn’t been completely destroyed by the power of the Knights of the Round, that his royal cohorts had done as he had silently requested and simply purged Ardyn of the Starscourge so that he could find peace in the world beyond.

Noctis placed his hand on the top of Pryna’s head and held his own head high. “Let’s go,” he said, “Take me to them...to my family.”

Moments later, as Noctis fell into Lunafreya’s embrace with his father and mother close behind, the tiny nagging voice reminded him again of the other person who surely waited for him in the afterlife, but he pushed that thought away in favor of a joyful reunion with his loved ones, just as the myths of his childhood foretold.

~*~

“What’s wrong, Noctis?” Lunafreya’s voice broke the silence in the room, and Noctis looked up from his dinner, ashamed that his wife noticed that he had been pushing his food around with his fork instead of eating. Pryna shifted at his feet and barked hopefully.

“You’re not getting any, girl, eat your own food,” Noctis said to the dog, and then glanced back across the long table at Lunafreya. After their reunion and marriage, time seemed to stabilize and pass as normally as it had in the corporeal world. His appetite returned as well as his desire for pleasure and amusement. Noctis eventually realized that the world he lived in was fundamentally the product of his own mind and the minds of those around him; Insomnia was there because of the Lucis Caelum line and all those who had perished to protect them, but the Citadel was surrounded by sylleblossoms due to the Nox Fleuret influence.

The first time Ravus came to Insomnebrae, as Noctis liked to think of it, was for his wedding to Lunafreya; Noctis had never had a chance to properly thank the silver-haired man for what he had done to help them in Zegnautus Keep before Ardyn had murdered him, and while he was happy to have the chance to do so, Noctis couldn’t help but think of Ardyn and the significant role that the other man played in almost every afterlife reunion so far. Recently, his thoughts of Ardyn had become more frequent, to the point that he found himself staring into the distance and wondering what had become of the other man.

Lunafreya dabbed at the corner of her mouth with a napkin. Her brow furrowed and she peered at Noctis with concern. “My love, please. You can tell me anything.”

He swallowed hard and set his fork down next to his plate. “It’s nothing, really. Just, you know, thinking about how Ignis would be disappointed that I still don’t like vegetables very much.” He couldn’t tell Lunafreya that his unease was due to his ever-growing desire to find the very person who was responsible for their postmortem nuptials. Noctis watched his wife from across the table and for a moment wondered if her concern was genuine or if she was simply playing the role that was expected of her. His heart twisted, and a very small part of him hoped that the latter was the case.

“You miss Ignis and the others, don’t you,” Lunafreya said gently. “I’m sorry. I think that in the end...this ordeal was less of a burden for me,” she apologized.

“How so?” Noctis folded his napkin on the table, knowing he wasn’t going to finish eating. “You lost everyone you loved.”

Lunafreya smiled sadly. “But I have everyone back again. Only Umbra remains in the world of the living...and I can take solace in knowing that he will stay with Gentiana until his time comes, watching over your friends and their families. You…” she bit her lower lip, “had to come here on your own. You left so much behind to be with me.”

“I left them behind because I had to. There was no other choice for me. I had to...take care of...Ardyn,” Noctis replied, his voice catching in his throat as he said the other man’s name. “He had to sleep so that the world could wake up.” He couldn’t bring himself to speak the brutal facts, not while his feelings for the other man were still so unsettled. Noctis knew that Ardyn had to be somewhere in the afterlife, but the longer that he spent wondering where Ardyn had been sequestered and allowing himself to explore the feelings he had repressed for so long, the less peaceful his life became. “Besides,” he continued, “I’ve got forever with you now, right?”

He watched Lunafreya nod her blonde head from across the table. “Forever is a long time, though.” She stood from the table and walked the length of it to sit down in the chair next to Noctis, clasping his hand in her own. “I don’t hate him, Noctis.” Lunafreya’s eyes were touched with sadness. “Before he...killed me...I touched him, and I saw what was in his heart. He wasn’t always a bad man,” she said, and Noctis felt her small hands tighten around his. “He was consumed by desperation, filled with so much pain. He had been alive for so long, waiting two dozen lifetimes for someone to bring him respite. I tried to heal him, and perhaps that was my greatest folly.”

Noctis tilted his head slightly, meeting Lunafreya’s clear blue gaze. “I know,” Noctis said, “I saw it too, at the end. He told me...how long he had been waiting...how long he had been living within the darkness. He wanted to sleep...but he didn't want to be forgotten. I can’t-” his voice broke, “...Luna, I’m sorry. I can’t stop thinking about him. I can’t forget...I won’t forget him.”

Her hands felt clammy within his own, and Noctis heard Lunafreya draw a deep breath. “You should find him, then.”

His eyes went wide at her words. “What?” The feeling in his chest was unmistakably elation, despite his shocked reaction. Noctis couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I mean, I know he’s here…”

Lunafreya looked down at their entwined hands. “The Astrals hid him away from you. They knew that you would be tempted by him if you knew where he was. I think they felt that you would forget him if you were reunited with me, and with the rest of your family. I don’t think they understood how…”

Noctis gritted his teeth, and he squeezed his wife’s hands. “Don’t say it,” he cautioned, and Lunafreya shook her head.

“You loved him.” She blinked a few times, and he could see her blonde eyelashes were damp with tears. “You still love him.”

“I don’t love him,” Noctis shook his head vigorously.

“Don’t lie to me, Noctis. I can see it in your heart as strongly as I could see the darkness in his. You need to go to him. Resolve the tumult in your heart. Forever is a long time, and…” she sighed, “I can’t spend forever with you like this.”

Noctis sighed as deeply as Lunafreya. “All right,” he said, bringing Lunafreya’s hand to his lips and kissing the top softly. “What about..after I find him?” He hadn’t been this conflicted about his feelings since the first time he realized that he was attracted to Ardyn; it was somehow less complicated for him to want Ardyn after Lunafreya’s death, because she was no longer part of the equation. He thought that he was going to have to give up his feelings for Ardyn after his marriage, but somehow Lunafreya didn’t feel the same way. Noctis wondered for a moment if she too was a construct of his mind, his subconscious influencing her to encourage him to pursue his desire for the other man.

“Pryna will bring you home when you are ready, just as she did in the beginning,” Lunafreya said simply, and she stood from the table again. “I’ve already let your father and mother know that you would be departing on a sabbatical. Nyx will stay with me while you’re away.”

“Nyx is a great man. He’ll take good care of you,” Noctis said. His heart seemed to pound out of his chest and his head began to swim as the possibility of finding Ardyn grew stronger. “All right, then. I’m going to go,” he said, smiling down at Lunafreya, who returned his smile as he leaned down and kissed her lightly on her closed lips, “Thank you, Luna.”

“Be safe, Noctis.” Pryna barked at Noctis’s feet, and Lunafreya’s serene face was the last thing that he saw as the world melted away around him, as it had when he used to travel through time with Umbra by his side.

~*~

The winding paths in this area were worse than any labyrinth than he had ever traversed during his time traversing Eos with his friends. He remembered wandering through nothingness before finding Pryna some time ago, and the length of that journey seemed brief compared to the roads that he had been walking since Pryna left him at an entryway that reminded him vaguely of the dungeon that he and had explored in the Vesperpool. The farther he delved into this area, the more that rubble and dirt paths gave way to paved roads, steel structures and broken piles of stone became buildings that resembled a civilization that Noctis had only seen in paintings and the oldest history books in the Citadel’s library.

He ran his fingers over the stone walls as he paused at the juncture of three tunnels. Much like within the empty space before finding Pryna, the passage of time seemed inconsequential. He didn’t need to eat or drink here; his suspicions were confirmed that his surroundings were created on the fly via the consciousness of those around him. Pryna had only been able to travel to the edge of this realm, waiting patiently at the exit for his return. He wondered if this was because Ardyn had no awareness of Lunafreya’s canine companion before his death, or if the Astrals were somehow preventing the dog’s entry to impede Noctis’s journey.

Noctis thought of Ardyn’s face the last time they had seen each other, before the Knights of the Round brought their power together to purge the daemons from Ardyn’s body and deliver his soul to the Astral realm. His slightly shabby, handsome visage was contorted into a strange demonic form, black fluid pouring from his eyes and mouth. He hoped that the purge of the daemons had returned Ardyn to his previous self, the one that had so often haunted Noctis’s days and nights during his journey across Eos. Noctis looked down at the suit that he had worn when he faced Ardyn for the final time, the outfit he wore when he started this next chapter of his life. He felt a twinge of guilt at his affinity for this outfit, stronger than his attachment to the formal regalia he had wore for his wedding to Lunafreya.

He had to keep walking. Ardyn was somewhere within these walls, and even if something in the world could make him forget why he came here today, Noctis admitted that he wasn't sure he could find his way out on his own. The halls of this fortress were quiet, but he could sense Ardyn within them. Noctis closed his eyes and reached out with his mind for the correct path, and upon doing so, a series of red lights flashed along the center of the floor. These had to be wayfinders, he decided, and kept his eyes fixed on the ground, following the path through the winding hallways, up flights of stairs, and down a long ramp leading to a doorway. Standing in front of the passage, he remembered similar entrances in Steyliff Grove and Costlemark Tower, realizing that he was seeing relics of Ardyn’s time as a mortal, before the Starscourge took hold of the world and Ardyn was cast away from civilization.

“Makes sense,” he murmured to himself, “I guess we all just want to go home, huh.” Noctis waited for the door to open, and when there was no movement, he rapped his knuckles against the metal entryway, calling Ardyn’s name. “Hey, open up. Come on. I know you’re in here. Only a dick like you would make me walk through this kind of maze for a million years just to say hello,” he taunted, recalling Ardyn’s affinity for his smart remarks.

After a few moments of silence, a series of mechanical sounds rang out and the door slid upwards, opening into the center of a village built in the same style as the labyrinth. There were electric lights illuminating the street, but the sky was dark. The entire scene looked like something out of a role-playing game that he had wasted too much time on while he was in high school, and he wandered along the stone street and sat down on the edge of a fountain. He glanced down at his reflection in the dimly lit pool and ran his hand over his beard; when he was with Lunafreya, he kept his face clean-shaven as she preferred, but during the time he had spent trying to find Ardyn, his beard had grown nearly as long as it had been the last time he had been face-to-face with the auburn-haired man.

Noctis continued to watch his reflection ripple as water droplets splashed down from the fountain into the pool below. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them he saw a familiar face in the water next to his own.

“As I live and breathe...theoretically,” the voice behind him said, “Noctis Lucis Caelum.”

Noctis rose from the edge of the fountain, slowly turning to face the other man. “Ardyn…” he trailed off, not sure how to address him.

“Izunia is fine,” Ardyn said with a smile, “I’ve become fond of the name over the years.”

“You never did tell me who your name belonged to,” Noctis recalled aloud, and Ardyn shook his head in response.

“I suppose if you’re so curious, we could chat about that, but I don’t believe that’s why you came here,” Ardyn said, “It’s been a long time since we last saw each other, King Noctis.”

Noctis swallowed. “Noct is fine. Don’t need to be so formal.”

“All right then, Noct. Why don’t we move this discussion to my home? It’s a short ways away from here,” he said with a flourishing sweep of his arm. Noctis nodded, and Ardyn began to stroll towards the cluster of houses near the fountain.

This entire situation was even more bizarre than he could have imagined. He had expected Ardyn to be hostile, angry, or at the very least irritated with him, but instead he seemed pleased to see Noctis. Noctis couldn’t deny how much faster his heart started beating when he saw Ardyn's reflection in the pool, or the flutter in his stomach when he turned around to see that Ardyn’s face appeared as he remembered it before the daemons had taken over. The contortions and purple-black ooze were gone, replaced by olive-toned skin, soft stubble and faint wrinkles, and to his surprise, blue-gray eyes that now reminded Noctis of the Vesperpool during a heavy downpour. Ardyn wore a less complicated version of the strange, garish clothes that he had as the Chancellor, but for some reason they didn’t look out of place in his current surroundings.

“Is this...Solheim?” Noctis asked, glancing in one of the windows as he kept pace with Ardyn.

“Very astute,” Ardyn replied, turning left and then right, “As you may have noticed, the Astral realm is more or less what you imagine it to be. It’s a bit like a dream,” he explained, “except there's no waking up this time. I’ve been able to conjure just about everything that I needed…” he trailed off, pausing in front of a house and opening the door. “After you.”

Noctis entered the house, glancing in a circle while Ardyn closed the door. “Looks like you’ve been getting some reading done,” he quipped, not sure how to begin the conversation.

“I’ve read them all before,” Ardyn replied, walking to one of the shelves and taking down a red leather-bound tome. “Many lifetimes ago, of course. I had to leave them behind when I was cast away.” He set the book on the table. “What brings you here, Noct? I knew that you had followed me beyond the human realm; it was our shared destiny to end up in this place, but you had no divine calling to seek me out.” He folded his arms over his chest and glanced at Noctis’s hand, “Especially considering you’ve found your happy ending after all.”

Noctis twisted the gold band on his left ring finger. “Yeah, in a way,” he said. “But I guess after everything that happened between us, I couldn't just leave things unsettled.”

“You killed me, Noct. I’d say things are settled,” Ardyn pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat down. “You came to Insomnia to finish me off and bring the light back to the world. Pity that neither of us lived to see it. I would have liked to see the sun rise again.”

“How can you say that...when you were the one who brought the darkness to the world?” Noctis took a few steps towards Ardyn and met his gaze. The new color of his eyes was somewhat unnerving; Noctis had countless dreams of golden brown irises watching him in the darkness, but with blue eyes Ardyn appeared almost pure. “Eos was nearly ruined because of your own sick desire for revenge.”

Ardyn sighed. “Vilify me as much as you like, Noctis. If you need some sort of closure, have at it, but then I’ll have to ask you to leave. I’m pleased to have a visitor, but I’ve had enough martyrdom for ten lifetimes.”

Noctis shook his head vigorously, swallowing hard as he tried to rearrange his thoughts. This wasn’t the way that he expected the conversation to proceed, and he pulled out the second chair at the table and sat down next to Ardyn. His chest felt tight and his mouth was dry, and he looked away from the man across the table from him at the patterned hanging on the wall. “Sorry. I didn’t…” he said, and exhaled sharply. “Can we start over?”

“We quite literally have all the time in the world,” Ardyn replied, crossing his left leg over his right. “I’ve spent thousands of years waiting for you, first in life and now in death. A few minutes is a pittance.”

Several moments passed in silence, and Noctis continued to survey the room while Ardyn opened the book that he had set on the table and flipped noncommittally through the pages, resting his chin on his closed fist. He let his gaze casually fall on Ardyn, and Ardyn peered up at him from the book. “While I was inside the Crystal, Bahamut showed me what happened to you,” he finally said in a low voice. “They didn’t want to, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what you said to me before the Crystal took me inside. I…” Noctis took a deep breath, recalling memories that weren’t his in the first place. “I saw what you did, what you were...what you meant to your people.”

Ardyn blinked and slowly closed the book again. “You came at me after your awakening with such anger, such hatred, and you expect me to believe that your actions were motivated by pity?”

“I don’t pity you,” Noctis said, “and I don’t hate you. I hated...I was angry at what the Astrals had done to you, and what you had become because of the daemons, when all you were trying to do was save your people.” He grit his teeth and leaned his head back, staring at the ceiling for a moment. “I had to find you and set you free,” he finally said, a lump forming in his throat. “Bahamut trapped me in the Crystal for ten years in order to prepare me to fulfill my destiny, but I think he wanted me to learn to hate you. What they didn’t understand...I couldn’t hate you, even after all you did to me. If it wasn’t for the Astrals, neither of our sacrifices would have been necessary.”

“Well,” Ardyn said, his eyebrow twitching, “if it makes a difference, I didn’t hate you either. I had been watching you for years before I first intervened in your life, and it sometimes pained me to realize you were never going to fulfill the destiny of the King of Kings without a very good reason,” he said, “I have to say, what was left of my human self occasionally regretted the hell I had to put you through as a means to that end.”

Noctis reached across the table and rested his fingertips lightly over Ardyn’s on top of the leather-bound book. “When you pinned me to the ground in front of the Citadel, you know what I was thinking?” He rose from his chair slightly, leaning close to Ardyn and cupping his cheek with his free hand, his other hand moving to cover Ardyn’s on the table. Noctis’s heart rose from his chest into his throat as he looked down into Ardyn’s blue-gray eyes, brushing a stray piece of red hair from his face.

“That it was a shame I never let you ride alongside me in that piece of junk that I drove in Lucis?” Ardyn breathed against Noctis’s lips, and Noctis smirked and shook his head, pressing his lips gently to Ardyn’s. He waited for a moment and watched for Ardyn’s reaction, so close to the other man that he could count the crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes. When Ardyn’s eyelids shut and his mouth moved gently against Noctis’s, he carded his fingers through his former nemesis’s wild red hair and allowed all of the passion in his heart to flow into his kisses. Ardyn's hand closed around his while they kissed; his lips were warm and his hand was hot. Every time Ardyn had touched him while they were alive, his skin was cold, but somehow in death he felt more alive than he had in the world of the living.

Noctis broke the kiss but didn’t let go of Ardyn’s hand. “Dammit,” Noctis cursed, shaking his head slightly. He couldn’t bring himself to tell Ardyn the answer to his question. The latent attraction he had to Ardyn before entering the Crystal hadn’t disappeared during his long sleep - it had consumed him until all he could think of was bringing Ardyn peace, no matter what he had to do. During their final battle, Noctis continually reminded himself that he couldn’t spare Ardyn’s life, knowing that the other man would never see a remedy to his suffering.

Ardyn’s fingers ghosted over the wedding band on Noctis’s ring finger. “What of...this?”

“She’s important to me,” he confessed, “but it’s different…Luna never needed me...I never needed her....” Noctis pulled Ardyn’s head back towards him and kissed him again, the heat and taste of his mouth flooding his senses, “the way I need you,” he whispered between kisses, his fingernails digging into Ardyn’s hand.

Ardyn’s tongue brushed against Noctis’s parted lips, and he darted his own tongue out to meet the other man’s. There was no turning back; the two kings stood in unison, knocking Ardyn’s chair to the floor as they kissed their way back to the bedroom, hands fumbling with each other’s clothes along the way. Ardyn shed his jacket and scarf before they left the front room, and Noctis’s blazer fell to the floor somewhere in the hallway. By the time they made it to the bedroom, Ardyn’s shirt had disappeared and Noctis’s hung untucked and unbuttoned, his bare chest heaving as he caught his breath between feverish kisses.

“I need you,” Noctis repeated, “I want you…I…” he paused, the words in his heart stuck on the tip of his tongue.

“I know,” Ardyn said, walking Noctis backwards towards the bed, easing his black shirt from his shoulders to the floor before pushing him down to the mattress. “I needed you then, and I need you now.” Ardyn’s lips covered Noctis’s as he closed his eyes and lowered his long body on top of him. His warmth consumed Noctis, so different from the cold-blooded man he knew on Eos, and the physical and emotional heat flowed between them until the remainder of their clothing was nothing but a hindrance. “And I've always wanted you.”

They moved against each other like old lovers, despite this being their first time making love; Noctis allowed Ardyn to tease him into a writhing mess, begging for release, promising Ardyn the same in return. When Ardyn finally sank into his wanting body, Noctis met the other man’s blissful gaze, maintaining eye contact until both men were spent, catching their breath against each other’s shoulders before falling asleep in each other’s arms.

Noctis woke from a dreamless sleep and yawned, glancing sleepily at the empty pillow and rumpled blankets next to him. He hadn’t slept this well for longer than he could remember. For a moment he wondered if he had never left the Citadel, that the dreamless slumber was a dream in and of itself, but the unmistakably masculine scent of the bedsheets and the pleasant soreness when he stretched reminded him of where he was and who he was with. He rose slowly from the bed, wrapping the rumpled sheet around his waist, and wandered to the front room where Ardyn stood with his hands in the pockets of his loose pants, tousled red hair ablaze in the sunlight streaming through the window.

“I never thought I’d see the dawn break over Solheim again,” Ardyn said, and while Noctis couldn’t see his face, the hitch in his voice was enough for Noctis to know what Ardyn was feeling.

“You said you wanted to see the sunrise,” Noctis said, resting his forehead against Ardyn’s bare back and slipping his hands around the other man’s waist. He thought briefly of Pryna and hoped the dog had returned to Insomnia by now. Lunafreya had told him that Pryna would bring him home when he was ready, but he wasn’t sure how to explain that this was where he felt like he belonged.

“Thank you,” Ardyn said, his hands closing firmly around Noctis’s, “for purging my daemons...for bringing the light...for helping me get home.”

_For you, I'd wait 'til kingdom come_  
_Until my days, my days are done_  
_Say you'll come and set me free_  
_Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me_

**Author's Note:**

> I failed miserably at shortfic (again) but I hope this was worth all the extra prose!
> 
> The afterlife/Astral plane is kind of like the dream world in the movie Inception, at least as I like to envision it.
> 
> By the way, I don't dislike Luna at all even though I'm really not a fan of the Noctis/Luna relationship in the game. (I hope she and Nyx are very happy together while Noct is on indefinite sabbatical in Solheim...)


End file.
